The Best - and Worst - Movie Promos of the Week

Watching Gary Busey consider the daily life and sexual tendencies of hobbits is disturbingly mesmerizing, but ultimately, it’s not out to promote The Hobbit, so the Best Stuff title has to go to three other contenders and, in a delightful timely fashion, three Sundance features go on to earn the honor.

The Best Stuff

1. In FearPoster: What happens when a lost-in-the-woods scenario collides with an “unknown tormentor?” You get something wildly eerie and clever – or at least as far as the poster’s concerned. The pressure is on big time for In Fear because I’m going to be very disappointed if the Sundance entry doesn’t give me a reason to hang this stellar design on my wall.

2. The End of Love Trailer: That Mark Webber is one charming guy. As if it isn’t sweet enough that Webber stars in The End of Love with his actual son, Isaac, the film’s exceptionally intimate shooting style and raw performances work wonders in the new trailer, presenting the piece as a unique treat oozing with deeply heartfelt emotions. It’s been a year since the film first debuted at Sundance, but it looks as though its January 21 iTunes release could be worth the wait.

3. Mud Trailer: Jump back to Sundance 2013 with the first trailer for Mud. Matthew McConaughey’s name may be the big draw for Jeff Nichols’ latest, but as far as the trailer goes, it’s the intimate time spent with his younger costars that sucks you in before the piece explodes into this enthralling whirlwind of crime, relationships and even a degree of malice.

The Worst Stuff

1. Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor Poster: Even with a mouthful for a title and disjointed trailer, the first poster for Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor was pretty neat. It’s a clean, appealing design that says something about the movie. This new poster, on the other hand, fails at selling the film’s seduction angle, rather leading you to ponder how a woman’s body compares to the shape of the letter “T.” That’s some deep stuff, Mr. Perry.

2. Jack the Giant SlayerBanner: It’s never right to kick someone while they’re down, but come on; this just can’t be serious. Jack the Giant Slayer had it rough with last week’s abysmal display of the digital giant poster, but now the promo designers are busy butchering the film’s live-action elements, too. What a silly looking compilation of characters. Maybe it’s better off poor Stanley Tucci is barely even recognizable.

3. The Internship Poster: The first poster for The Internship might have been cool a few years ago. Not only is the Google lookalike approach tired at this point, but it also makes for a disappointingly boring design. In this case, busier could have been better. Jazz up the image with even more nods to computers and search engines, and the film might have ended up with something far more eye-catching and perhaps even fun to look at. As it stands, poster number one is hardly worth a fleeting glance.

Movies.com, the ultimate source for everything movies, is your destination for new movie trailers, reviews, photos, times, tickets + more! Stay in the know with the latest movie news and cast interviews at Movies.com.